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And easy-to-use fit-in-the-pocket phone. What else would I need?

The Siemens C45 is getting a bit long in the tooth as far as mobile phone technology is concerned, but seeing that my wife and I have had over 3 years of trouble free service out of two C45s, I thought I would do a review. In my opinion Siemens are to be congratulated on this phone.

Before I got the C45, I had one of the early pay-as-you-go vodaphones from Tesco - remember those? Anyway, one day I was getting into the car and didn't notice that I'd dropped my phone on the road and reversed over it. It still worked OK but the slot to plug the charger in was completely smashed. So a new phone it had to be and off I went to the Vodaphone shop.

Because I was not a heavy user, I would stay with pay-as-you-go and this little neat little C45 measuring 12 X 5cms caught my eye for £75 and with a little bit of bartering (I always barter) they threw in a leather case as part of the deal. I simply whipped my sim card into it so I could keep my old number. I did this because it is a very easy number to remember - something you don't come across very often with mobile phones.

Well all I can say is that this phone has been (and still is) absolutely great. A year after buying it, I dropped it into a mug of tea. I dried it out with a hair dryer and it continued to work fine. I was so impressed that I went on to ebay and got an identical second-hand model for £40 that my wife now uses. They are probably even cheaper than that now.

One thing that I do enjoy using on this phone is the SMS text messaging. I didn't have that facility on the previous Tesco phone or the "brick" I used to carry around before that. Remember analogue phones? The only complaint I have with the texting is that the keys are small and I need reading glasses to see them. But hey? Small phone, small keys - it would look a bit daft with big ones!

There are two menu buttons at the top that are actually rocker-switches. The left one if pressed on the left will take you straight into the start new text message, if pressed on the right will take you into missed calls while the right one will take you to your full menu. And for a phone of this age it is quite a comprehensive menu. Each time you press the red button with a phone picture on it, it will take you one step back through your selection with the last selection that switches the phone off. It is also used to end a call.

There is a large green button in the middle which is pressed to make a call after you have entered the recipients number. Also if you press this key as soon as the phone is switched on, it will bring up the last 10 numbers you have dialled.

Press any key when the phone is ringing to answer.

The Main Menu: First of all there's the help function (folder) - this tells you how to use all the phone's facilities. That is good if you lose or do not have an instruction manual. Then you have the messages folder - in here is stored all your incoming messages and outgoing messages (or you can store previously composed messages). Then there's the voice mail (I've never used this), Internet surfing (a tad expensive on pay-as-you-go) so I don't use this either. Then you have records of calls received, calls sent, missed calls, calls dialled, and something else I never use, is the conference calls facility - where a group of people can be talking on line at the same time with you acting as co-ordinator.

Other things this phone has is an alarm clock, diary to keep important dates in and games. I looked at the games once, but I'm not a fan anyway. But I should imagine they would be good if you are waiting in a waiting room somewhere and there is no reading material.

On this phone you have a choice of a few ring tones. Again this is something that doesn't particularly interest me, except for the fact that I have set mine different to my wife's phone so we know which one is ringing - I have a Mozart piece of music. The phone also vibrates, so if you're somewhere noisy and you have it in a pocket, you can feel it when you have a call.

On the view screen you can also see the number of the person calling and if you have them in your "phone book", their name comes up also.

There is a divert facility, that means you can divert callers to another phone - but there again, that is something that I have not used, because I tend to switch it off when I'm at home anyway.

An optional hands-free kit can be fitted to this phone, but I was not impressed with the quality of the sound, a lot of crackling making it difficult to understand what the caller is saying. But I was in the car at the time. Now in the car, hands-free or not, the phone is switched off unless someone is with me to answer it. This is because if someone is calling me, I nearly always need to consult my diary - not easy when you're driving!

You can enter a lock code (pin number) for the phone via the menu. I did not need to use this though as it was already set up on my sim card.

To summarise For it's age, this phone still looks like a modern piece of kit. It's very small and comfortable to use, you can get different coloured faces for it and I'm sure that there is a lot of other accessories you can get for this phone from ebay. I won a spare battery for a fiver. And yeh, there's a screen-saver. I've got mine set as the clock that tells me what time it is The battery standby is excellent. I've actually left it turned on once for two days running and the battery was still a quarter full. The official standby figures are 60  200 hours and talk-time 100  300 minutes that is more than adequate. I have also purchased a car-charging cord which I am sure is still available from eBay for a pound or two.

Thanks for reading

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"MP3 and games wear the battery down very quickly"

I originally bought this phone because all of my friends had the latest nokia and it was beginning to get tiresome wondering which phone was mine down the pub. The Siemens C45 comes with two different fascias, silver and blue. The silver looks cool for about two weeks but easily becomes scratched so take care not to keep it in a pocket with your car keys! After that I switched to the Blue cover, which is wearing well and looks neat. The size of the phone is compact and lightweight so it can fit into very small pockets and won't stretch your jacket out of shape, but I have often had a quick panic after being unable to feel it about my person (normally after a couple of drinks I must admit!). It's size can make the buttons rather fiddly, infact my girlfriend at the time returned her Siemens C45 (much to my relief as they looked identical) as she said she couldn't operate the buttons. I've got rather stubby fingers myself though, and I've learnt to cope quickly enough, so I wouldn't let that put you off, but again, sobriety will help with using the controls. The MP3 player is superb, coming with a 32mb memory card which can fit around 70 minutes worth of music without too much distortion. The mp3 player doubles up as the handsfree kit and it's quite nice having two ear pieces for conversations in noisy places. The only drawback for the MP3 player is that it really drains the battery time, so be aware that if you want to actually use your phone it will make sense to take a personal stereo along with you. But it's nice to have music available for emergencies, such as when it's suddenly announced that the train is going to be another 30 minutes late! The C45 has WAP capability, but this is of limited use, but it is WAP generally that fails to impress me, the phone handles the connection fine, except under tunnels, which is only to be expected. For a seasoned nokia user like me, the main drawb ack is the rather poor games on the phone, again useful for those (un)expected delays. Siemen's don't have any rights to snake but provide the annoying 'Balloon Shooter', the strangely addictive 'Stack Attack' and BattleMail, which is great fun in practice mode but allows battles with a friend across the mobile network (providing you can actually find someone else who has a Siemens C45!). My battery talktime has diminished rather drastically in the space of a year which hasn't happened to me on previous phones, but this may well be par for the course. All in all, the Siemens C45 is a nice package phone, great MP3 player, some reasonable games, a small diary, facility to make short notes and WAP facility. It can also store 20 text messages, compared to the Nokia's 10, so if you tend to be sentimental over the occasional message but still want to retain functionality then this may be the pro that swings it for you!

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I have to say I was plesantly surprised when my phone arrived & I took it out of the box. It looked alot better in the flesh (Well, plastic!) than it did in the catalogue. The only reason I purchased this phone was because my Samsung A300 had been stolen, and since I didnt have insurance I needed another phone quick. The C45 was the cheapest one in my club book last december so I got it. The phone is very functional, with everything from WAP to 3 quite addictive games. It is very simple to use once you have got the hang of it, its not too dis-similar to a nokia phone. The display is very clear & the orange backlight looks very nice in the dark. The keys are soft & a good size. The phone is compatable with downloadable ringtones, screensavers & operator logos. It is resonably light and from my point of view the perfect size, as the buttons & screen are big enough to be functional but the actual size of the phone is quite small. All in all, a very good little phone compared to others I have had in the past. Dont be scared to change from a Nokia, Siemens are just as good if not better in some respects.

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I recieved my Siemens C45 pay as you go mobile in October 2002 let me tell you all about it. APPEARANCE It is silver in colour and it fits snugly in the palm of my hand, the back pushes up quite easily to access the battery and sim card, it is extremely light weight. I love the size and weight of it as it easily fits in my pocket or handbag without taking up too much space. PHONEBOOK The phonebook is easily accessible as there is a button on the phone that leads you straight to it, it holds 100 names and phone numbers you can also put your numbers into 4 groups which are: VIP, LEISURE, OFFICE and FAMILY. There is also an own numbers section which holds 3 numbers of your choice, I put my own mobile number in there to start with so that it was easy to access when I needed to give my number to anyone. I find that it is extremely easy to make a phone call when you have access to all the numbers so quickly and easily. MESSAGES You can send text messages at a cost of 10p (o2) per message, the message can be 160 characters long, you can write messages the normal way or as I have found extremely useful you can also write them in T9 which means you press the number that has the letter on it and the phone sorts out the word you are looking for if it does not come up with the word you are looking for you just press the star button and that changes the word you keep pressing it until you have the word you want. This is probably the best bit about the phone as I am a text addict and send loads of texts as it is much cheaper than a phone call and it gets the message across just as good. You can store 10 messages between your inbox and your outbox and when the memory is full you will see a flashing envelope on the main screen. You can also send predefinrd text messages which are messages that are stored in the phone already such as "How are you" and "Please call" there are a total of 8 predefined messages to choose from. You can also send picture messages which are stored in the phone but as far as I know you can only send them to certain phones that are picture message compatible, these picture messages can also have a sound added but you can only send sound and picture messages to other Siemens C45 phones. RECORDS This is a list of the last 10 missed calls, the last 10 calls recieved and the last 10 numbers dialled. I find this very handy especially if it is a missed call from someone unknown in my phone book, I can access the number through records and give them a call back to see who it is, if it is someone who`s number I would want to keep then I have the opportunity to save the number to my phone book, extremely handy. OTHER FEATURES You can access the internet as this is a WAP enabled handset,I tend to access the internet quite frequently as you can go onto sites that give you free logo`s, screensavers and ringtones. There are 3 games built into the phone, Battlemail which is a fighting game, Stack attack where you have to stack the boxes to get rid of them and Balloon shooter where you have to shoot all the balloons that float across the screen, these were very handy for times when I was bored, I dont use them any more as all of my time goes to DooYoo. There are lots of other features like Alarm clock which you can choose the time and what days you want the alarm to go off,I use this for waking me up to get the kids to school on time. A diary for storing information such as meetings or appointments which can also have the alarm function so that you wont forget, there is a birthday section to store all the birthdays that also has the alarm function enabled so that you will never miss another birthday. You can set the date and time so that it shows on the main screen at all times. There are 20 built in tones to choose from and another 4 empty ones for you to add your own favourites, but unfortunately you cant compose them on thi s phone you need to have them sent to you by sms. You can also g et a screensaver which needs to be sent by sms. CONCLUSION This is a great little phone with lots of useful functions and at the time of purchase it was approximately £100 but as you all know the prices fall so it will most definately be a lot cheaper now.The battery only takes about 2 hours to be fully charged and it can last about 3 days on standby before needing charged again, I would recommend that the battery be left until it is nearly empty before fully charging it as this prolongs the life of the battery. Thank you for reading maz76

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"Average reception"

In July 2002 I was searching for an Orange contract phone. After trawling every mobile phone shop in the town I was left with only two choices: the Sony J70e and the Siemens C45e. I currently had a Trium Mars, which I was to retain, and thus had no qualms about following the legions of Nokia fans and going for the predictable 3330e, which was also offered to me in the same shop as the Siemens. I had one main criterion: the phone had to be free. This ruled out a vast number of other phones from other worthy manufacturers, and the Sony was eventually laid by the wayside due to the complicated-looking menu system. I have since found out that this is not a problem with it, and lots of other people manage perfectly well with them, but the solid Teutonic appeal of the Siemens won me over. I had friends who had owned both Siemens C35s and C45s, and could not fault them. I also had the satisfaction that I was buying into a reliable, well-known brand, but at the same time I was being rather individual, and could even take that individuality further should I want to, since the C45 has changeable covers, which come in excellent shades. For the price I was paying, which was nothing at all, since it came on a contract, I was confident, and I still am, that the phone I was getting would pulverise the Nokia 3330 when it came to size, features and price. I stand by that opinion to this day. There were two things that I noticed about the Siemens when I got it home. The first was the menu system, which actually took me time in the manual to get to know. I have never had that problem with any other phone I have ever owned. However, once given the chance to get to know it, the system actually works better than most of the others I have used, and in some cases is actually easier than the industry-standard Nokia system, particularly when adding contacts to the address book. The second surprise was the battery life. Knowing that it still has a Nickel Metal-Hydride (Ni-MH ) battery as opposed to the more modern lithium-ion one, I thought the battery life would be comparable to the Trium Mars I had bought that February. I was wrong. The battery life is comparable to the Mars' big brother the Eclipse, which at that time was about £100 more expensive than the C45, and the Eclipse has a lithium battery. In what some would call a 'low end' phone, as opposed to the more expensive Siemens models the S45, SL45 and ME45, this is amazing. This, if anything, shows why I was disappointed with the 3310 I was given as a loan phone whilst my C45 was being repaired. It is to this that I must now turn. I had no reliability problems with the C45 for the first nine months of ownership. It did not cut out, turn itself off when it felt like it or fail to send text messages, all problems I had experienced in phones before. However, just as I had felt the phone receive a text message from my mother, I pulled into Sainsbury's car park, since I had been driving at the time and I was on the way to the supermarket, and found that the screen had gone blank. I only found out who the message was from since I had forgotten my shopping list, and went home to get it, only to find my mother asking me if I had got her request for eggs. I could not find out, since the phone would turn on, but nothing would show in the display. So, I went back to Sainsbury's with my shopping list and request for eggs, and my mother went back to the shop where I had bought the phone, and managed to sort out a free repair and a loan Nokia 3310 for me. Although I was disappointed at the phone I had been given (hence the review of the 3310 I have done), I was pleased to have one. When the thing came back, in addition to fixing the screen all my options were still there, and they had even replaced the front cover for me, so it now looks new. Good service, if I may say so. This begs the question of the phone itself, however. I am pleased to say that it is quite the most practical phone I have ever owned. Everything that one needs in a mobile phone is present, it fits neatly into the pocket of one's jeans, and there is no external aerial to break off at an awkward moment as on the Triums I have owned. The only thing that the C45 really lacks is the speakerphone of its bigger brother, the S45, which Trium have always had, and can be very useful. The inbox is not quite as well managed as the Trium Mars, which has quite the best system for organising this of any phone I have encountered, but sending replies and messages in general is far less of a guessing game: if the message is not sent the first time, it will not be lost! Predictive text is also there for those who like it, but yet again, not being someone who likes it I do not personally use it. Its ability for conversation is next under consideration. With a large round green button in the centre of the phone for answering calls, it is easy to see that Siemens have really thought about what most people need to use a phone for! Unlike a Trium, there is no need to practise answering with the bottom bit of a small rocker switch, which admittedly does come with practice, but if you ever leave your phone unattended and it rings at home, at least you have the satisfaction that another member of your family will be able to answer it for you should you not be present in the room for some reason. Even Nokia owners like my mother and sister seem to be able to cope with this, so Siemens must be doing something right! Finding missed calls is also easy, as well as the last numbers dialled. The ringing itself, however, is something that needs to be taken into consideration. The ringtones are light years away from being polyphonic, and owning a Trium Eclipse in tandem with the Siemens has really put this into perspective. Even the Sagem MC 920 I used to own, which was an awful phone in most respects, had a much better selection than this. The advert for the C45, shown over the summer of 2002, seemed to imply that it had masses of ringtones and it was easy to download and compose more. The composer is still there, but even in comparison with the Sagem, it is hard to find ringtones for it. As I normally do, I have stuck with the ringtone which sounds most like a phone ringing, but whereas the ones in other phones I have had sound bright and urgent, the Siemens ones sound slightly old-fashioned, even in comparison with Nokia, and make it hard to find even three that I would feel all right with. For some people, however, this will not be an issue. The games on the C45 also deserve a mention. Although two of the games, Balloon Shooter and Stack Attack, can be written off for being too dull or too difficult respectively, the third, Battle Mail, is certainly something of which Siemens should be proud. It is the first truly multiplayer game which does not require an infra-red port and an identical phone, as Snake II did with the Nokia 6210 and 7110. You can play Battle Mail by yourself, with another C45 owner via text messages, versus someone on the Internet, or have an entirely Internet-based game. Although the game itself entails nothing more complicated than choosing attack and defensive moves before entering into combat with another character and seeing the outcome, it is strangely addictive, and I would love to be given the chance to play multiplayer more often. Two final aspects of this phone remain for consideration. The first is its functionality as a diary, and the second is its durability and build quality. Functionality as a 'business tool' for the younger people who mainly buy this sort of phone is surprisingly good: it has birthday reminders, a scratchpad and an appointment calendar. This is not as comprehensive as the Trium Eclipse by any means, but it is still very useful, and has saved my life in terms of birthdays on many occasions! The build quality of the C45 is also very good. It actually seems a little more solid than the average 3310, and the standard covers wear extremely well. The keys have a nice feeling to them, and the lettering is in no danger of coming off, despite furious text messaging on my part. The whole thing has a far more expensive air about it than a Trium or a Sagem, that is certain. The reception of this phone might be only average, but the unit itself is certainly not. It is a shame that I am not the only one who has suffered faults with their handset, since this has prevented me awarding the C45 a five star rating, it really is that good. As ever, it is still cheaper than anything comparable in the Nokia range, so those who are thinking of buying one should have no second thoughts. This is probably the most sensible phone I have ever owned.

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The Siemens C45 is small, functional and brilliantly durable, which in my opinion is why it is one of the best value mobiles available on the market. After trying phones from Motorola and Nokia in the past, neither of those two companies as come anywhere close to the quality of the Siemens C45. ~~~ Vital Statistics ~~~ Phone Band: Dual Antenna: Integrated (in built) Weight: 107 grams Dimensions (L x W x H): 109 x 46 x 23mm Exchangeable Covers: Yes Battery Nickel Battery Stand By Time: 60 - 200 hours Talk Time: 100 - 300 mins This phone is so small and light that you will hardly notice it when it's in your pocket. This phone is great for someone with an active lifestyle who doesn't need a big, heavy phone pulling them down more than necessary. With the antenna being inbuilt there will be no discomfort of it sticking into your leg like a pin when it?s in your pocket. I will mention more about the exchangeable covers later on, but now about the battery. For such a little phone, with an equally small battery, you would expect low battery life. However, the C45 shows that you should not judge a book by its cover, as this little battery can out live the majority of phones on the market. With a charge time of around 3 hours this phone is fantastic if you are on the go, and you need a quick charging phone. ~~~ Features ~~~ ++++ SMS and T9 Predictive Text ++++ This phone has a fantastically simple interface, and the text message screen is no exception. This phone makes typing those many text messages a breeze, with its great predictive text feature. You press the keys to place in the corresponding letters, if the word the phone comes up with is not your desired word; you simply press change using the simple button. However, a very small bad point about the predictive text is not every word you are going to use will be stored within the phones dictionary. Moreover, if during typing a message you accidentally press the red phone, the whole message is lost, and has to be re typed. If you have friends with a C45 then pictures can be sent between the two phones. Having said this the pictures are not the best, but to be honest, what more could you expect from a mobile phone? Delivery reports can be sent up with the C45, notifying you when a message has either not delivered, delivered or its validity has expired. ++++ Keypad Features ++++ The buttons on this phone take a little getting used t, but once you have got the hang of them, you will be sure to love them. The big green dial button, is obviously pressed when you wish to make a call, however it has another very useful feature. If you press the button when not wishing to make a call, you're most recent numbers dialled will appear. You can then simply select the person you wish to call, and press the big green button. By pressing the down key of the main key pad your 10 most recent missed calls will appear great if you have not heard your phone ring and have missed a few calls. Another great feature about this missed calls list is that each missed call has a time and date stamp, along with who called you, allowing you to quickly get in contact with the caller. The keys can either be placed on silent, so no noise is present when pressed (which is great when you wish to use your phone in somewhere quiet), or you can have a variety of annoying beeps every time you press the keys, the choices is yours. As with all mobile phones this keypad can be locked to prevent the pressing of keys, and possible accidental calling, whilst the phone is in your pocket. Something extra offered by the C45 which is great in my opinion is the addition of two features. Firstly, the phone book key, with one press of a button you can be into your phone book (with a 200 number capacity) in seconds, a nd ready to select a name to make a call. Secondly the star key, if held down for a second can completely put your mobile on silent, or back onto loud. This saves the hassle of having to go through all the various menus. ++++ Display ++++ The phone has a nice simple display, with no fancy images, functional rather than fashionable. The menus are incredibly simple to get to grips with, and navigation really couldn't be any simpler. This phone can send, receive and store operator logos, as seen across the Nokia range of mobile phones. These logos can not only replace your network title on the main screen, but they can also be used as a handy screen saver if your phone is inactive for a few minutes. The screen saver is a great feature for two reasons, firstly it saves battery life, which is always useful, and secondly you can place a security code onto the screen saver to prevent people from reading your private/dirty text messages. ++++ Reception and Speaker Quality ++++ This phone dispels the myth that all phones with an inbuilt aerial have poor sound quality, and reception. This phone delivers great clarity during voice calls no matter where you are. The speaker and microphone are also very high quality, allowing you to hear the caller, and them to hear you loud and clear in almost any situation. ++++ Call Features ++++ This mobile really shines with its call features, during a call you can divert the call to another number, start up a conference call with more than one other person, alter the volume of the speaker or the microphone, transfer data over the phone to the other caller and observe how long you have been on the phone, and more importantly how much credit it has taken. ++++ Fashion Features ++++ By fashion features I am referring to the likes of games, ringtones, logos, changeable covers etc, so here is a run down of what the C45 has to offer. ++ WAP ++ Yes the C45 is internet ready, but this may sound good but as with all mobile phones the internet service is very poor due to the small number of sites that are actually WAP compatible. The internet will quickly drain your phone of credit, and serves no real purpose to the average phone consumer, and I can only really see a use for emails etc if you are a business man/woman. The internet also has very poor security and no filtering features, meaning that porn and other adult content are easily found, so if you have kids with his phone just take this into consideration. The connection speed on all mobile internet is deathly slow, and I believe an old spectrum would be capable of loading the web pages faster. This isn't really a fault of the C45, rather of mobile internet itself. ++ Ringtones ++ Annoying as most of them prove to be, the C45 has not got a bad selection of ringtones. 24 stored within the phone and space for a further four of your own (which can be downloaded from the internet or bought from phone order companies). The ringtones in my opinion are quite good, and offer such classics as Green Sleeves and the Pink Panther Theme Tune, not as annoying as some of the Nokia ringtones for example. The downloadable ringtones are out in their numbers all over the internet, everything from modern pop songs, rock, down to television and movie theme tunes can be found. A great feature if you're a fan of cheesy ringtones. ++ Logo's ++ Mentioned earlier, so will just say that the number of logos available to Siemens users is huge, and the official Siemens website offers a few for free when you sign up. Make sure you choose a good one however, or you will soon be paying for more. ++ Games ++ The main reason I have a mobile phone is for sending text messages and making calls, however some people do like to see a selection of games (such as the massivel y popular Snake on Nokia's) on their phones. So Siemens have not left out the games in their phone. Having said this, the games this phone includes are boring, unimaginative, and none challenging. The phone includes the games Balloon Shooter (where you shoot balloons, and yes it is as boring as it sounds), stack attack (an attempt to recreate the tetrus style game on a mobile, and failing miserably), and lastly Battle Mail, which is a very poor fighting affair, which can be played against over C45 users for 20p a pop. So if games are your thing then this phone will not be for you. ++++ Changeable Covers ++++ The C45 has a huge range of covers now available from a lot of different retailers. I'm sure you have seen all these things before on Nokia's so no reason for me to go into any detail, apart from to mention that these C45 covers are surprisingly strong, and if bought from the right place, quite cheap as well. ~~~ Further Features ~~~ ++++ Dual Band ++++ This allows you to make calls to anyone whether they be on land line or mobile, from anywhere in the world with the exception of the USA, which requires a tri band phone. Perfect for those who are away in Europe a lot as an example. ++++ Diary and Reminder ++++ Never forget that Dentist appointment or someone's birthday again with Siemens handy organiser. A great little feature that has been cleverly implemented to sound an alarm a day before the reminder occurs, and then every few hours up till the reminder, or whatever it is you have stored in there. ++++ Vibrating Alert ++++ When the phone is placed on silent vibrating alert can be activated. Not as violent as many phones out there on the current market, so if your after cheap thrills then this phone is definitely not in your street. The vibration is a perfect strength, not so much that it hurts your body, but not too little that you si mply can?t tell that it is vibrating. ++++ Language Selection ++++ Only really useful if you are foreign as you can select your mother language so that all this phones displays are changed to show it. Also fun for getting som eone really annoyed by changing their phone into Dutch for example, then watching as they angrily try to navigate the menus to change it back to English. ++++ Alarm Clock ++++ A great feature that I have used quite a lot since owning this phone. Can be set for anytime any day, and the volume of the alarm can also be altered accordingly. However, the alarm sometimes can become quite annoying and very irritating, especially if the alarm is for waking you up in the morning. ++++ Fun with Faces ++++ For each entry in your phone book (so for example your mother in law), you can place a little picture that will appear when they call under their name. Be careful which picture you choose for certain people, for example there is a danger of having to try and convince your loved one that the dog that appears when they call is in fact "cute" like them and not"ugly" like them as it may imply. I have had quite a lot of fun with this feature and it just adds a degree of personalisation to your mobile phone, making it more unique, and more in keeping with your personality. ~~~ Durability ~~~ I have owned this phone for almost a year and half now, and believe me it has come under some heavy wear and tear over this time. It has been dropped down stairs, onto the pavement, into a cup of water, of my bike, and many more little accidents, and although falling to pieces each time, the phone has remarkably come away with nothing more than a few scratches. The phone has never let me down with any technological errors, and has always been as good as new in terms of functionality, although the appearance as you would expect with anything has deteri orated. The phone may appear flimsy and weak, but when put to the test this phone comes out a winner, and surprisingly can win many battles. ++++ Add Ons +++ An in car kit can be purchased for this phone allowing hands free mode, and in car charging. Great sounds clarity as usual. Additional batteries can be purchased should anything go wrong with yours. A data cable can be used to transfer text, and data both from and to the phone. The data cable includes software to allow connection to any PC, with any operating system. A simple interface will have you downloading and transferring data (such as ringtones, logos and emails) in no time. An official Siemens plastic case can be purchased to further protect this precious piece of equipment. ~~~ So in Summary......... ~~~ This phone is small, sleek, functional, fashionable, and great value for money. When you?re looking for a new phone look no further than C45 or any other Siemens model for that matter, as they are all under rated and great phones for people on a budget. Durable, long lasting battery and a variety of covers adds so much value to this phone, allows for personalisation and a great phone for an active lifestyle, due to a great resistance to rough and tumble it will inevitably be subjected to. Siemens are extremely underrated, and should deserve a closer look, and a little more attention. Go on, give the C45 a try, your missing out on a real gem! ~~~ Thanks ~~~ As always thanks for reading my opinion, any comments welcome, and hope to read you soon :O) Andy_The_Writer

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"quite an old model"

I got my Siemens C45 last year and it has been adequate. I don't advise you to rush out and buy one unless you are on a budget. By now they are a cheap option as a pay-as-you-go mobile, but if you are getting a free phone on a contract I would advise choosing something else. The phone is small and lightweight. It is not unattractive, but quite curvy and the cover that comes with it is dark blue and blackish blue. Some of the features that it has are very useful. For example, if you set the alarm on the phone but then switch the phone off, the alarm will still go off at the time you set it for. This can be useful if you're absent-minded, or want to turn the phone off overnight to save batteries. There is also a function to remind you of birthdays, games, predictive text and all the usual stuff that comes with most mobiles these days. It has fun duck graphics when you switch it on, which is a nice touch, and when it is on standby a picture of an analogue clock comes up to show the time. It is easy to navigate the menu, and to find things quickly. Some of the things that aren't so good? The keys are soft painted rubber rather than the usual hard plastic of most mobiles. If you have long nails, the top layer will peel away and it doesn't look great. The cover is cheap and looks tatty after a while. My phone sometimes switches off suddenly for no reason, although most of the time it is fine. The worst bit is the awful battery life. If you use it much, you have to charge it every day and even then the batteries sometimes run out. Compared to the Ericsson T28 that I had before, this is awful. As I said before, this is not a bad little phone. It has been reliable for almost a year now, and although I plan to replace it with an Ericsson T68i, it is still working as well as ever. I think that as a pay-as-you-go phone, this is an excellent buy at around £60 in the shops. But if you're getting a contract phone, choose something a bit nicer.

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"Not best of games"

If you are a person who likes to be individual and not just "one of the crowd" then the Siemens C45 is the phone for you! Not only is it a good phone with services like wap, logo, ringtone etc but it is stylish, small, slick and a cool phone. If you feel that having a Nokia 3310 is the thing to be cool well think again because when you bring a Siemens out everybody will be amazed. Perfect for the outgoing person eg Birthday Reminders, sms, wap email, diary etc. Also a very good phone for working business users as a great wide choice of networks is available and the phone has notes, diary, reminders, charge settings and duration of calls so you know what you DO. The phone is very "tedious" as the clipit TM covers are probably the nicest fascias you can get. From Siemens original clipit you can get HOT MAGMA, OCEAN BLUE etc or you can choose fascias from your face to coca cola to the simpsons. With the choice of logos, screensavers, ringtones, messages, wap mobile internet and the best personilization this is the best phone around. The hot keys on the mobile keypad are very good for people who cannot remember numbers so easily. Simply hold down "2" to get your balance. With 10 steps to go through from the main menu the phone is not complicated, it is fun and it is easy and practical to use. You can personalize in "Setup" and "Audio" Get the latest download for your C45 from www.my-siemens.com featuring Big Brother 3 Ringtone, ATB, Avril Lavigne etc. Three games are on the C45 including Battlemail TM which you can play mutliple by SMS, balloon shooter, and for the classical tetris person in us "Stack Attack" If you decide you are bored with your "smiley" logo then why just not change it to the screensaver? And why not send to your mobile mates, a PICTURE + SOUND message or a logo or a ringtone. Or why bother with texting your mate on holiday by sending them an email on wap. With 7 great networks to choose from- 02, T-Mobile UK, Virgin, Fresh, Tiscali, Vodafone, Orange and Sainsburys mobile you will certainly get the right price plan for you. If you are looking for a fun, creative, personalizable phone then get the Siemens C45 from prices of £60-£120 and certainly take advantage of making your own fascia, getting downloads and do not leave them lying there. If I have inspired you enough hop down to your 02 or Carphone Warehouse or The Link store quickly and buy the C45 on 02 with 3 free fascias and 15 free logos or ringtones for only £60 in Carphone Warehouse and £80 in the others. Overall this is the best phone I have ever bought. Hope you really liked my opinion. Ronan Tansey

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After trying several different mobiles over the past few years - motorola, philips and nokia i was pleasantly surprised by the siemens c45. It provides good value in a tiny and light phone with an impressive selection of features. Most people treat Nokia as the best manufacturer of phones and yes it is true that there are more free ringtones/logos available for nokias, but in terms of features the siemens knocks it into touch. there's a really handy birthday reminder, a notes section which i use contstantly for shopping lists, a nice selection of ringtones (and you can also download some free and non-free ones at the siemens site for a more personalised effect) and i particulary love the ringer on/off button which allows you to turn on/off all ringers by only pressing a single button. The key lock facility is great - press a single button to turn it on and it has never come undone by accident unline my nokia 3310. It's much small er and lighter than my nokia 3310 aswell. There are also some nice covers available for it if you want to make it more personal, but it comes with a nice durable one anyway. It does take a while to get used to how to use it, but all phones do really and its very simple once you're used to it. If you value a phone with lots of unusual and useful features (and it's stylish too) over a fashion accessory then chose the siemens c45. it's my favourite phone yet!!

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First of all I’d like to say I bought my siemens C45 in October of last year and has never let me down to date. Everywhere I go I drop it, it’s got scratch marks all over and the top doesn’t clip on properly. Even worse I have three other covers and they’re all smashed to bits. Everyone has got a Nokia because of the name, I’ve had a Nokia 3310 but for me the c45 outclasses it by far. It has more features, more style and more reliability. The only thing that lets it down is the navigation buttons at the top. The up, down and select buttons are all joined together which is a pain in the neck really, because you try to press one of the select buttons, instead you press up or down. Talking about the C45 is ending up comparing it to the Nokia 3310 so I might as well carry on. Style is what the phone is about with every part of it being curved; you could call it aero dynamic. You just can’t class a phone as that though can you? Anyway, if you hold a C45 in one hand and a 3310 in the other you will see how heavy, dull and boring it is compared to the C45. As for games the 3310 is better fun-wise. Bar that mobile phones are for ‘interactivity’ and ‘connecting people’ (as Nokia say); Siemens do just that with this model and ‘batlemail’ from battlemail.com where you can play anyone with battlemail across the globe. Battlemail enables you to play people without a Siemens phone because it is playable from the net, so you can play without a c45 phone. All you do is choose your 5 attacks and 5 defence moves, then watch them fight it out on your handset. You have 5 characters to choose from: - An oriental geezer - A kid - An afro-man - A pony-tailed chick - Also a spiky haired dude I always choose the afro-man because he’s a real geek. When he wins he bops his head from side to side in a stupid manner. For 25 people you can create your own calling face. What you do is make a face up that best suits them; I think it’s called picture EMS (enhanced messaging service). What you have to do is choose three parts to the face; the top, middle and bottom then send it in an sms. With a stand-by time of up to 200 hours and talk time of up to 5 hours it gives it the brawn behind the beauty. I usually charge mine for about 20 mins so it lasts me for a couple of days at least. There are some things I have forgotten to mention like it only weighs 700 grams, a volume of 82cm, logo’s and most of all ringtones. ::Features:: -Weight – 107g -Volume – 82cm -Antenna – Integrated -ClipIt covers -Dimensions - 109 x 46 x 23 mm -Talk time – From 100 to 300 minutes -Stand-by time – from 60 to 200 hours -Alarm function -SMS (Short Message Service) -Intelligent Typing (T9) -Picture Messaging -Enhanced Message Service (EMS) -Redial list -List of calls received / missed -Date and time stamp for missed calls -Menu animations -User profiles -Softkey programmable -Call wait / call hold -Conference call -Call forward -Display call timer and cost -Keypad lock -Silent Alert (vibration) -Calling Line Identification (CLI) -Call filter -Reminder list -Calling faces -Calling symbols -Wap 1.2 -Address book -Up to 250 entry telephone book -Birthday reminder -Diary -20 +4 individually loadable ringtones -Balloon shooter -Battlemail -Stack attack I hope I have convinced you to get out there and buy a Siemens C45 so we can swap logos and ringtones to compete with the Nokia fanatics. They’re in the shops for about £100 now so get out and buy one because they’d get my vote anyday.